The Lost Rising Sun, Makoto's Secret
by WriterWeirdo
Summary: Everyone thought Makoto was a person who had no secrets, and if he did, Haruka knew them. But this whole time, he's been keeping a huge secret, bigger than anyone else could imagine; about his real family, and most of all, Kosuke. When his friends finally find out about his big secret, they react differently than expected. And that one secret completely changes him and his life.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: The categories may change later on, from hurt/comfort and family to maybe something like friendship and comedy, I don't know what I'm doing at all XD this is hopefully going to be a pretty long story :3 If anyone would like to contribute a picture, that would make me happy, very very very very happy, because oh my god I need a picture. And now, without further ado, the story:**

**Yay! Thank you so much, DestatiDreamXIII! The credit for the picture goes to her, please check her out on deviantart if you have time!**

deviantArt

DestatiDreamXIII

Fan Art / Manga & Anime

* * *

This is a Free! Iwatobi Swim Club fanfic O.o Don't judge me, Makoto's my favorite character .

Warnings-ish: Slight OOCness, omfg the feels tho, first attempt at non-comedy writing, written without my meds, oh gawd the feels, and I didn't even come up with a plot for this I just wrote and kinda had an idea of what was going to happen but not really.

Makoto thought back to the time in the Rest House, when he had first told Rei and Nagisa the story of why he was afraid of the ocean.

Well, the thing was, that story was only the half truth. Not even Haru knew the whole truth. He thought back to the night that the boat had come back, with not even half as many members on it…

_A young makoto stood by the dock, eagerly awaiting the old mans return. He watched the ship slow to a stop, with Haru right next to him. One by one, people got off the boat. But, he noticed, there was something odd about them. All of them looked gloomy and distressed, and a few of them were even crying, some supporting the others._

"_Look." A young Haru said, snapping him out of his thoughts._

"_What is it, Haru?" Makoto questioned. Haru just pointed towards the boat._

No… _Makoto thought._

_He looked at the various holes and missing parts to the boat. The mast was broken, the sides were cracked and badly chipped, and the sail was in shreds._

"_Wh-what happened?" Makoto asked, even as the situation dawned on him._

"_Haru- Haru? Where's Mr. Old Man?_(Makoto was young at the time, so that's what he called him.) _H-he's okay, right?" Makoto said, grabbing Haru's hand and stepping behind him. Haru didn't say anything, just squeezed his hand, hoping to comfort him a little._

"_Haru, where's my-" Makoto slapped his free hand over his mouth before he could say anything._

"_Your who?" Haru asked worriedly, looking at the now-crying young boy behind him. Even though Haru didn't say it, he hated seeing Makoto cry. He wished there was something he could do to make him feel better…_

"_N-nothing…" Makoto sobbed, burying his face into Haru's back._

A few days earlier…

"_Bye-bye, Nii-chan!" A happy young girl called out._

"_Good bye, Ko-chan!" Makoto called back, smiling. "See you in a few days!"_

"_Yuhp! See you in a few days, Mak-mak! Tell our step-parents I said I'll miss them, and I can't wait to have new step-siblings!" Makoto's sister said to him, smiling the whole time._

"_I will, Nee-chan! I'm sure our step-parents will be happy to hear that! Tell me how your trip went, ok? I'll miss you!" He replied, also smiling the whole time._

"_I will! And I'll miss you too, Mako-chan!" She ran over to him and they hugged, both smiling. Then as the greeter called out to her to hurry back, she ran to him, waving goodbye to Makoto._

"_Also, keep the goldfish alive, Mak-mak!"_

"_Ok!"_

_*Note: Makoto's parents had died earlier on, and the people he was living with now weren't actually his real parents._

As Makoto remembered his sister, he felt something wet fall down his cheek. He touched it, only to realize that it was a tear.

"Mak-mak, are you okay? You're crying!" His step-brother said to him, clinging onto his leg. Every time one of his step-siblings called him Mak-mak, he remembered his sister. His heart throbbed with sadness.

"Haha, of course I am!" He said, plastering a fake smile onto his face. "It's probably just allergy season, sorry." He ruffled Ren and Ran's hair, then yawned.

"Ahh, it's getting late! I should go to bed!" He fake-smiled again and stood up, turning to walk to his room, when Ran grabbed onto his leg.

"Wait, Mak-mak, can't you read us a bed-time story first?" Ran pleaded. "Please?"

Makoto sighed, his heart panging again.

"Sure! Which one do you want me to read?"

"Now, now, Ren, Ran!" His father called from the kitchen. "Let your older brother get some rest!" Makoto gave his step-father a grateful glance, and he nodded in reply.

When he got into his room, he saw Haru waiting for him on the other bed. They had one of their non-vocal conversations, where basically Makoto conveyed that he didn't really want to play video games at the moment, if that was ok with Haru. Haru just nodded and rolled over onto his side, and pulled the sheets up over his chin. Makoto weakly smiled and laid down on his own bed.

While trying to fall asleep, he couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting.

He remembered her smile; everytime he saw it, it made him smile too. She had been very strong for her age, and she had the type of build that was almost identical to his own, maybe even broader at the time. He wouldn't know, considering he hadn't seen her for what, 7 years now? She had been the only reason he had been able to get over his parents death; she had been there to comfort him, and vice versa. She had always stood up for him, even when the situation got tough. In fact, she had gotten beat up several times for that, but he knew she had taken his place. It always made him feel bad, but he was too scared to face the bullies. Even now, he regretted that. She had hugged him and held him when he got too emotional, and said comforting things to him. She had always, always been there for him, no matter what. _I suppose,_ he thought, _she was like my sunlight. After all, her name does mean rising sun._

He remembered going to the old man's funeral, they had found his body. But they hadn't found Kosuke's body, which represented the small possibility that she was still alive.

He fell asleep with these thoughts still in his head.

"_Kosuke? Is that you?" Makoto called out._

"_Brother…" He heard his sister's voice answer back._

"_Hold on, Kosuke-chan! I'm coming!" He yelled, wanting to run towards her voice. But it rang out everywhere, not coming from any one direction._

"_Why did you leave me, brother?" Her voice called out again. Makoto froze at hearing that._

"_Why did you leave me? After all I did for you? After everything I went through for you? You abandoned me. I thought you loved me, big brother. But you left me behind." Suddenly, Makoto could see her as a little girl again; her green eyes shedding tears, her olive brown hair, the exact color as his but a bit bluer, in a huge mess._

_Makoto continued to stand there, paralyzed, as his eyes began welling up with tears._

_"P-please, sister, I didn't mean too... I don't want to leave you, please come back! Please tell me you're still alive somewhere in the world, that you're happy!" he begged now, his tears falling to the floor. Yet, for some reason, his tears felt more vibrant than everything else around him- more alive._

_"No, Makoto, I'm not. I'm dead and it's all your fault. It's all your fault for leaving me behind, for not saving me. Not stopping me from walking to my death." she finished, in her exact voice, the way he remembered it on the last day he saw her. It was so creepy; her voice was upbeat and happy, but she was sobbing, and she sounded depressed at the same time. It was enough to make him want to simply keel over on the spot and just, well, die._

_"Makoto. Makoto. Answer me, Makoto." another voice called out, this one deeper._

_"I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't- I didn't know you were going to die! I didn't know it was going to kill you! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" He continued to choke out his words._

"MAKOTO!" Haru's voice snapped snapped him back to reality.

"H-Haru!" Makoto said, slamming his head up and just barely missing Haru's face.

"Makoto, you were talking in your sleep again. You were saying, 'she's gone, and it's all my fault. She's never coming back, all because I didn't stop her. It's my fault she's dead right now, it's all my fault.', and then you started crying. Loudly."

To Haru's dismay, instead of explaining anything, Makoto just leaned forward onto him and started silently crying. He tried his best to control the tears, to stop crying, but he couldn't. The tears were like a flood that the gates couldn't hold back. The more he tried to hold them back, the worse it became. His eyes burned so bad, he felt like they were going to explode. Haru paused for a second, then slowly wrapped his arms around Makoto, not comfortable with the physical contact. On the other hand, Makoto probably needed it right now. He just sat there, limply, in Haru's arms. Once Haru felt that Makoto had calmed down enough, he asked,

"Who's the 'she' you were talking about?" he asked, in his monotonous voice. Makoto struggled to come up with something that wasn't the truth.

"It was my grandma. I was... remembering the last time I saw her." he said, hoping that it made enough sense. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but it was the first time he specified the gender. Haru stayed quiet for a while, and then said,

"Then who's Kosuke?"


	2. Chapter 2

"... That was my grandma's name."

"Makoto, don't lie to me. Who's Kosuke?"

Tears returned to Makoto's eyes as he remembered her face.

"Kosuke... Was my sister." At that, Haru stayed quiet for a while, before saying, "what?"

"I-I'm sorry... Haru, I never told you the truth. The thing is, it wasn't only the old fisherman who died in the tycoon. It was my sister, too." Makoto said, with a guilty look on his face.

"Was she the girl you were always around, back when you were younger?" Haru asked, not going further into detail, much to Makoto's relief.

"Yes. I'm so sorry, Haru, for not telling you sooner." he said, his eyes threatening to spill tears again.

"Why didn't you, Makoto?" Haru asked, worried about his friend.

"I-" Makoto said, before he started sobbing. "I don't kn-know..." he managed to choke out.

Thankfully, Haru knew that now was not the time to continue questioning his best friend. He supposed he could relate, considering that nobody knows what happened to his parents, or why he lives alone, not even Makoto or Rin. Or just like he kept his race with Rin secret, even though Makoto would have been there for him, willing to comfort him and assure him that it wasn't his fault. The thing was, and Makoto knew this, Haru wasn't really a person who enjoyed comfort from others, or really, who enjoyed being around other people that weren't Makoto or Rin. But Makoto was, wasn't he? Didn't Makoto like to be around his friends, to let them know his troubles so they could help him with them, just like friends were supposed to? And then again, Haru thought, Makoto had never told Rei or Nagisa that he was afraid of the ocean, or why, until recently. He considered all of these things together, and figured that it was perfectly logical that he didn't tell him. Haru could understand wanting to hide things from others. But still, it hurt him a little that Makoto, his best friend, would hide something from him. He had always been so open towards Haru, and all along, he was hiding a sad secret…

"I-I'm so s-sorry, Haru, p-p-please don't be m-mad…" Makoto sobbed, his head still buried in Haru's shirt. Haru reached around his arm again to pat him on the back, which surprised Makoto a little. Haru wasn't usually this… well, nice to others, not even Makoto. He had figured that Haru would at least be a little mad, or want to get away from Makoto.

"It's okay, Makoto, there's no need to cry. I'm not mad at you, I understand why you didn't tell us." He said, trying to comfort Makoto if he could. That's a lie, he thought. I'm still not sure why Makoto didn't tell me, but oh well, he must have his reasons.

"Do you want to tell Rei, Nagisa, or Rin?" Haru questioned. Now that Haru new, he thought maybe Makoto would want his other friends to know. Makoto just shook his head, signaling that he rather wouldn't. He had also finally calmed down and stopped crying, but Haru still had one more question.

"Makoto, can you tell me any more of what happened? I don't remember you ever going to a funeral for anyone other than the fisher." After a while of silence, Makoto breathed in, and said,

"She didn't have a funeral. She was never confirmed dead. They never found her body, so she could still be alive. She could be stranded somewhere, maybe in a place owned by America or Canada, so news that she was alive wouldn't have reached us. I'd think that they'd at least try to tell us though, so it's more likely that her body just got destroyed. After all, after all these years she'd at least try to contact me, right? She'd try to make her way back to Japan… but she didn't do any of those things, and neither did the people who were at wherever she ended up, which makes me believe that her body was either destroyed, or she died after escaping the ship and running out of food on land. It's… the only logical thing." Makoto finished, trying to hold back his tears. The thing is, after all this time, he had still hoped that somewhere, somehow, Kosuke was alive. His dream was that he could one day meet up with her again, and things would be just like they were before, but this time she wouldn't have to stand up for him. She was kind, just like him, but she would do whatever it took to defend him.

"Are you okay, Makoto?" Haru asked, after Makoto had gone silent, and his breathing had slowed.

"Yeah, I'm fine… thank you Haru, I'm going to go back to sleep now. Goodnight." Makoto said, pulling himself away from Haru and covering himself in his sheets. He only hoped that nightmares of his sister wouldn't haunt him again, and that he'd be able to sleep peacefully the rest of the night. Haru stepped away from him, too, and returned to his own bed, still worried for Makoto.

That night, Makoto slept without any dreams, and his only thoughts were that of the pool and the ocean.

The next day, at swim practice, he was a lot less cheerful than usual. When Nagisa questioned it, Haru told him to drop it, and Makoto smiled sadly. Rei new better than to ask about it, and Rin wasn't around.

"Makoto, are you sure you're okay? You're never this sad! What haaapeeennned, Maaaakoooo-chaaaaan?" Nagisa whined to Makoto, hoping that Haru didn't hear.

"It's nothing, I just didn't get enough sleep last night, haha. Sorry, Nagisa-kun." Makoto said, refusing to tell him what actually happened.

"But Maaaakooooo-chaa-" Nagisa was cut off by Haru.

"Drop it, Nagisa. Just stop it! Makoto doesn't want to talk about it, so leave him be!" That was the loudest Nagisa had heard Haru get in a while, and the angriest. The last time he got this angry… was when they were in the rest house, when Rei was asking why he was afraid of the ocean. But this time, Nagisa thought, Makoto isn't going to tell us what happened.

"Fiiiiiinnnnnne." Nagisa said, sighing. He walked away, his shoulders slumped.

"Um, Haru, you didn't need to get so mad… you don't have to tell them to stop, you know. It's fine, I can handle it-" Makoto said, not wanting Haru to feel pressured to deal with his problems, but he was cut off by said person.

"No, Makoto, I do need to. You won't be able to keep Nagisa's questions at bay. I want to do this, you're my friend. You deserve it." Haru confirmed, shocking Makoto a bit.

"O-ok…" Makoto said, still startled.

Makoto went on with the rest of the day like he usually did, just less cheery. He helped Kou clean up a bit, and watched Haru draw a different version of the Iwatobi penguin. Which actually looked almost exactly like all the other versions, now that he thought of it. Oh well. They had a meeting, and they decided that they were going to head out to the islands again to train, but this time Rei would NOT go out alone, and if he for some reason did, Makoto would wake the other two before following him. Same with everybody else. Rei and Makoto both promised they wouldn't, and everybody else agreed too.

**A/N: All credit for the cover picture goes to DestatiDreamXIII on deviantArt! Check out her account if you have time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hehe, this one's going to be a little shorter than the past 2 chapters, sorry ^^' but I'm gonna post the next part soon :3(not combined, just separately xD) sorry for taking such a long time, but I'm currently writing a different story with one of my friends for fun... so yeah. Also, I'm lazy. And I know I only have a few favs and follows, but for the people who did fav and/or follow, thank you so much! It's really appreciated, and it makes me feel special :3 also, reviews are treasured and worshipped :P anyways, ON WITH THE STORY!**

Later that day…

Haru had asked Makoto if he wanted to stay at his house that night, which was rare for him. It was usually Makoto asking Haru if he wanted to stay at his house, not vice versa.

"Uh, yeah, sure! Thanks, Haru!" Makoto had replied, a little bit surprised at Haru's antics.

"All right, good. See you later tonight." Haru had said over his shoulder, walking away.

"Um… yeah! See you later!" Mako yelled after him, turning around to get the necessary items from his house.

After arriving at Haru's house, they had played a bit of video games before the doorbell rang.

"That's odd, I didn't order anything." Haru said, pausing the game.

"I'll go get it!" Makoto said, returning to his normal, happy self. When he opened the door, there was a man in a professional-looking suit, who asked,

"Is Makoto Tachibana here?" He asked. Makoto couldn't see his eyes through his sunglasses.

"Um, yeah, I'm Makoto Tachibana. Why?" He questioned, concerned about why a mysterious man in a suit would know his name.

Instead of saying anything, the man just handed him a letter.

"This is for you," he said, as Makoto took the letter from his hand. He then shut the door and left.

_Why would someone send a person to give me my mail instead of just sending it?_ He wondered. _Is it really that important?_

"What is it?" Haru called from the other room.

"It's a letter addressed to me." Makoto answered. He walked to where Haru was and sat beside him.

"What does it say?" Haru asked, looking at the rather official-looking envelope.

"I'm not sure, let me see…" Makoto said, tearing off the top of the envelope and opening up the letter. As Haru waited, he saw Makoto's eyes widen, and then he covered his mouth with his hands as tears came to his eyes.

"Uh, Makoto?" … No response from him.

"What is it, Makoto?" Haru repeated.

"Read it." Makoto said, handing the letter to him. The letter said:

**_Dear Makoto Tachibana,_**

**_The funeral of your sister, Kosuke Tachibana, scheduled roughly 3 years from now, has been canceled. We have received news that she is alive and well, and she would like to add that she is saving up money to come to Japan. She has retained all of her body parts, and her personal status hasn't changed. (ex: Marriage, gender, name, etc.)_**

-America Search and Recovery

"That-that's amazing, Makoto!" Haru said, looking over to see him with his hands on his head, his elbows resting on his knees. He was shaking, but he was smiling wider that he'd seen Makoto smile in a long, long time.

"She's alive, she's alive, she's okay, she's alive, she's not mad at me… but what if she is? What if she's mad at me? Is that why she didn't contact me? Where is she? It never said!" Makoto started panicking near the end.

"Makoto, I'm sure it's ok. She's somewhere in America, so it's probably hard for her to get a flight to go to Japan. She might not have been able to reach you. I'm sure she misses you just as much as you miss her." Haru reassured him. "The important thing is, she's alive, and she's going to come find you."

"Yeah… yeah, you're right Haru. Thank you. My sister… after all this time, I finally get to see Kosuke again. I finally get to see her." Suddenly, he burst out laughing. "I'm so happy…" He said, between laughs. Haru smiled. It had been a while since Makoto laughed like that.

Suddenly, Haru's phone rang. He picked up, and it was Makoto's step-mom.

"Yes?" Haru answered.

"Did Makoto get his letter? Is he ok? That man came to our house, asking for Makoto, and we told him he was at your house…" His "mother's" voice sounded very concerned.

"Yes, he got it. Don't worry, he's fine." Haru replied. He could hear her sigh of relief over the phone.

"What was it about?" She pressed further. Haru glanced at Makoto, who had heard the whole thing, and he nodded.

"It was about his sister." Haru deadpanned.

"Ah, I see… is it bad?"

"No. She's alive, and she's going to come to Japan."

"That's amazing! It's-it's-it's a miracle! She can stay at our house any time! Can I speak to Mako-chan?" She sounded breathless.

"Sure." Haru said, handing it to Makoto.

"Hi, mom. What is it?" Makoto asked, sounding relieved, probably at the "she can stay at our house" part.

"I'm so happy for you, Mako-chan. We're going to be on vacation in 5 days. We'll be gone for 3 weeks. Is that fine with you?"

"Uh, yeah! Are you taking Ren and Ran?"

"Yuhp!"

"Ok, then! It's fine! We're also leaving in 5 days, for a week!"

"Great, honey! Bye!"

"Bye, mother." As Makoto pressed the hang-up button, Haru said,

"It's getting pretty late. Want to go to sleep?"

"Yeah, sure, let's do that. I'm pretty tired, anyways. Night, Haru." Makoto replied.

"Night, Makoto."

That night, Makoto had dreams of non-relevant things. He imagined that he was a small orca, swimming gracefully, as a blue-tinted dolphin joined him. Then, from the other direction, a penguin with pink eyes and a blonde ruff joined them, and then a red shark. He imagined each of his friends swimming beside the animals, including himself. He smiled. Finally, a green-brown seal swam up, with a young Kosuke swimming beside it.

**A/N: LOOK, PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW IF THEIR SISTERS HAVE ALL THEIR BODY PARTS. IT'S IMPORTANT, OK? DON'T JUDGE ME. XD**

******A/N 2: All credit for the cover picture goes to DestatiDreamXIII on deviantArt! Check out her account if you have time!**

******A/N 3: Nooo! She was supposed to be a sea otter, but frickin' Momotarou is a sea otter now! DX I wrote this before Momotarou was introduced into the series XD but don't worry, we still love you Momo~ hehehe.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So, you know how I said that the next chapter (a.k.a. this one) would be a lot longer? I LIED. I realize I have a different section that's perfect for it's own chapter. So, HAH! Hehehe, sorry. Anyways, favorites, follows, and reviews are ****worshipped**** appreciated!**

5 days later, they were able to get a boat of their own and sail to the islands. Once they arrived, Haru whispered to Makoto,

"What if your sister gets there while we aren't there?"

_Oh, crap._ Makoto thought.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine!" Makoto said, smiling. "Even if she does, she can wait for a few days, hopefully."

"Yeah, you're right…" Haru said, thinking off.

"Still, we can only hope." Makoto added, a bit more glumly. Haru nodded. Once they arrived at the islands, they set up camp and started cooking. Naturally, Haru brought only mackerel, so everyone else was also stuck with eating the fish. Makoto started to set up the tents, since they had arrived there late, and the sun was almost down. It also looked like it was about to rain, so they had decided to definitely, definitely not go swimming, at all, especially not if you had blue hair and you were alone. Rei looked incredibly guilty. Everyone had also noticed just how much Makoto had seemed to cheer up, and without noticing it, they also became a bit happier too.

"Hey, Mako-chan, why are you so much happier today?" Nagisa asked Makoto, holding his hands at his chest in a bunny-ish way.

"What do you mean, Nagisa-kun? I'm usually like this! I just didn't get enough sleep last night, that was the only reason I was a bit more glum yesterday. Sorry, Nagisa-kun." Makoto replied, deciding to stick with his story.

"Oh, so then you weren't lying about that whole sleep thing?" Nagisa questioned, looking at Makoto with puppy eyes this time.

"Wh-what?! Of course not, Nagisa! Why would I lie about something like that?" Makoto hastily said, worried that Nagisa had somehow figured something out.

"I don't know, Mako-chan! It doesn't matter, because you didn't anyways! Hahaha!" Nagisa smiled brightly.

"Yeah, of course not…" Makoto smiled back at Nagisa, but it was a bit of a sad smile. Not that Nagisa noticed, anyways, for he was too busy skipping away happily.

During the night, Haru and Makoto slept in the same tent. Gou had come along with them, but Miss Ama hadn't. Makoto was about to got to sleep, when…

"Makoto, are you sure you're ok?" Haru asked, with a worried expression.

"Hmm? Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?" He asked back.

"Well, it's just, the whole day you've constantly been gazing off, and you haven't really been able to pay attention or focus at all. It's like you're constantly thinking about her."

Makoto didn't reply for a minute, and when he did, he said,

"Well, that's because I have been constantly thinking about her. I just can't wait to see her again… I miss her so much."

"Makoto…"

"Yes?"

"What if she's different?"

"What do you mean? The letter said that she hadn't changed."

"The letter said her personal status hadn't changed. It didn't say anything about how much she's changed, personally. Think about what she must have been through. She might've changed, mentally. You know that, right, Makoto?"

Once again, there was a while of science before Makoto replied.

"Of course I know that. But, I can only hope that she hasn't changed for the worse. The fact is, I can't wait to see her, either way. I just… I hope she'll be happy to see me too."

Haruka thought for a moment, then said,

"I'm sure she will, Makoto. Night."

"Goodnight." And with that, they both rolled over and fell asleep.

For the next few of days, things went over smoothly. The storm only lasted for about an hour after they woke up, and after that, there were no more weather problems. Rei started to be able to keep up with the rest of them, but he still had to use the kickboard. Still, it was progress. Better than nothing. They were also all able to build up their stamina quite a bit.

On the fifth night of the training camp, Makoto couldn't stop thinking about his sister. He wondered what she looked like now, if she was still as strong or not, and how much her personality changed. He fell asleep with these thoughts in his head.

**A/N: Also, the next chapter is going to be a lot shorter. Don't hate me please. ****Also, all credit for the cover picture goes to DestatiDreamXIII on deviantArt! Check out her account if you have time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: HAHA! I told you it would be shorter, and it is! I think! I'm too lazy to check, my dears~ 3 So far, the story has 26 pages. This is the beginning of the 14th. (according to Google Docs) Also, thank god for Google Docs! I love you Google Docs hehehe. 3**

"Makoto? Makoto, are you there? Is anyone home?" Kosuke said as she knocked on the door to the Tachibana house. She wondered if maybe she had gotten the wrong address, until she saw the door frame engraving that said 'Tachibana'.

She mentally facepalmed.

She then noticed that all the light were out in the house, and the windows were all shut and locked.

_Wow, aren't I a smart person?_ She thought. _Oh well, maybe they're just on vacation. I'll just wait around for someone to get back. I'm pretty sure there're some apartments near here… and then again, I'm broke. These were the best clothes I could afford, and they're men's jeans, a loose white t-shirt, a black (also loose) hoodie, and some white sneakers. Of course, I'm also wearing the necklace Mako-chan gave to me when I was younger, but I didn't have to pay for it. Crap, what am I gonna do? Hmm, maybe I can find a cheap hotel or something… I really shouldn't have bought that phone. I hope Mak-mak still remembers me. Has he changed? Wait a minute… priorities. Come on, come on, hotel. I'll come back here every day from 5 to 8 to wait for them. Yeah, that sounds good…_

-A few hours later-

_Great, it smells like old people._ Was Kosuke's first thought as she entered the room. Her hair had actually been brushed sort of nicely for the first time in 7 years, but the second she flopped on the bed, it magically became a rat's nest.

_Fantastic._

Almost the second she hit the bed, thoughts about Makoto started rushing through her head.

_I hope Nii-san still remembers me. Maybe he's forgotten me… or what if he's changed? What if he's mad at me since I've been gone all these years? I've tried to contact him, over and over, but it never worked… besides, I was stuck in a place with almost no human habitation, and I barely made it to a different place in one piece. Or maybe… _Suddenly a horrible thought hit her. _What if he's dead?! What if he's been hurt, and I didn't know?! Agh, this is bad… I missed him so much, I can't wait to see him again… oh no! I hope he doesn't judge me by the clothes I'm wearing… god, he'll probably think I'm just some random dude at first, I probably look like a gangster or something… BUT THESE CLOTHES ARE SO COMFY! AH! Ok, ok, calm down, Mako-nii's never been judgemental… and then again, it's been 7 years… agh!_

The rest of her thoughts went on like that. Eventually she fell asleep, having weird dreams about the sneakers she was wearing. She decided that she would go to Makoto's house early, too, the next morning, instead of just waiting there from 5 to 8.

And she waited there, for the next 3 days, from 8 to 11 in the mornings and 5 to 8 in the afternoons, without any success. She had taken a shower every morning before that, which wasn't really normal for her, and washed her clothes every other day. And yes, those were the only clothes she had at the time. She also washed her hair the first day, but gave up on the next 2 days. She finally had time to catch up on her sleep, too, by actually sleeping a whole 12 hours in a single day for once in the past 7-9 years. She had looked up 'Makoto Tachibana' online, and found nothing except for the Iwatobi Swim Club page, which held his picture and information on it. She was a little glad to see that nothing had changed about him appearance-wise, and he still looked kind. She thought back to the two jobs/money-making-opportunities she had had while gone: A construction worker, and a street fighter. Yes, she had been a street fighter. She had fought in clubs, and won a surprising amount of money from them. Incredibly, where she was, street fighting and fight clubs hadn't been illegal. Their government just wasn't supportive enough to do that, she supposed. During her time as a street fighter, she had gotten a lot better at fighting- she was never bad, though, to begin with. She just hadn't been the best incredible, either. She had never fought like a girl- she had always had more of a boys fighting style. Strong, well-timed punches, swift side and front kicks, wrestling to the ground, headlocking, elbowing and kneeing, even, and other things like that. She had also been pretty buff, a lot buffer than people thought women could be. She hated those people, by the way. She was normally a nice and caring person, but not towards sexists, no matter which gender they were sexist against. She understood if people just misunderstood, but if they truly believed one gender was better than the other just because, then they deserved to be hated, in her opinion. Other times, she was a bit too nice. A pushover, even- a lot like Makoto. With all of this considered, she realized Makoto might not even recognize her. The only things that were the same about her was the color of her hair, and her eyes- and maybe her personality, too. She wasn't quite sure about the last one. She could only hope.

**A/N: All credit for the cover picture goes to DestatiDreamXIII on deviantArt! Check out her account if you have time!**

**(Street Fighter IIII New Character: Kosuke Tachibana. Wtf is wrong with me. I just imagine her as the type of person who would totally fight for money, but not professional fighting like wrestling and stuff. Hehehe. Please don't hate me.)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hello thar :3 this chapter is one of the longest ones... I think. I DOOONT KNOOW. I'm too lazy to check 3. Anyways, I love you all! So many views hehehe :P Also, favs/follows/reviews are appreciated, so please fav/follow/review. Or don't. But please do. Also, I have requested a cover image, so hopefully they'll let me use their picture 3 anyways, byebye! And enjoy chapter 6!**

**I just checked... and yes! LONGEST CHAPTER SO FAR! HAHAHAHAHA! :D**

As Makoto walked back to his home, he almost hoped to see Kosuke waiting by the doorstep. He knew that that was almost impossible, as he had no idea when exactly she was coming back- it might be a year or 2. The letter said "saving up money to come to Japan"- That could take a while. A very long while. As he reached his door, he walked inside to complete darkness.

_Oh yeah,_ he remembered, _My family is away now. I'll be the only one in the house._

He turned on some of the the lights, then went to his room to unpack. Not even 30 minutes after he had laid down to get some rest, someone knocked on the door.

_That's odd, we weren't expecting anybody…_

He waited for a moment, and when they didn't knock again, he decided it could wait. He went back to sleep, even though it was only about 5 p.m. He dozed off, only to wake up 30 minutes later to a _BANG!_ on his door.

_Ok, this is really weird… I might as well go get it…_

He got out of bed, quickly put on some new clothes, and walked to the front door, only to open it and see…

_Green eyes, the exact same color as his, shone with happiness for others as she saw a family happily being reunited with their missing dog._

_Long hair, the same shade as his, only a bit bluer, flew around as she dodged a punch from a drunk high-schooler._

_A rather muscular and tall body for her age strained as she struggled to try to help carry the heavy supplies with the rest of her family while being forced to move from her house._

His breath caught in his throat, and he stared forward at the familiar person standing in front of him. He could not only see her, but practically also feel her staring back at him.

He managed to say,

"K-Kosuke?"

Her eyes widened and she smiled, but before she could say anything back, her brother pulled her into a big hug and buried his face in her chest. (Don't think dirty things, jeez, it's not like that) He started sobbing silently, in happiness, and tightened his arms around her. He could feel muscles underneath his arms, very strong ones, too. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around him, too, and struggled to not cry as well.

"Mako-chan… Mako-chan, I missed you so much!" She said, hugging him tighter. They stood like that for a while, in the middle of the doorway, overjoyed to see each other. After they had both calmed down, she came inside the house with him, and they both sat down next to each other on the couch, Makoto leaning on Kosuke, with one of her arms around him. After a while, he finally said,

"Kosuke… Kosuke, where have you been? What happened to you? Why didn't you contact me?"

"Mak-mak… I'm so sorry. Do you want me to explain it all, in order?"

"...Please do, Nee-san."

She paused for a moment, then started her story.

"On the day the Typhoon hit, I was thrown out of the boat, along with the fisherman. He… I wouldn't have survived if it weren't for him. He kept me afloat, clinging on to me from underneath my back. I didn't… I didn't realize he was dead, until I hit a piece of floating wood debris. Even after death, he had held onto me and kept me alive. I used that wood debris to continue to float, until I came across another bigger ship. They took me onto the ship, and they kept me alive by feeding me. While the ship was taking me to the Alaska, because that was where they were headed, the same Typhoon that had hit me before, and I was knocked unconscious. When I came to, I was on a cold, cold island that was seemingly uninhabited. I wandered for a while, then found a village, which only had a few people in it. They told me that I was on island Montague, in Alaska. I managed to make money, in things like running tasks, doing jobs nobody else wanted to do, and in a couple of cases later on, even brawls. Because of how slow this went, and the little amount of money I got, it took about 3 and a half years until I could get to another island on Alaska. This was island Adak. About that time, I was only 13, so it was even harder to get money. It was around that time that I had started to get stronger, I had to stay fit to… well, to survive. When I was there, I lied about my age, saying I was 15. They let me work a few jobs, mostly things like farming, and I was able to support myself. Around the age of 15, I got a job as a construction worker, which payed a lot more than my other jobs. I also… well…" she gulped and looked down, fidgeting with her fingers.

"What is it, Ko-chan? You know… you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to." Makoto said, even though he really, really really really wanted to know what had happened. And Kosuke could tell.

"No, it's fine, you deserve to know. Sometimes, to earn extra cash, I would… street fight. I almost always won, and I never got to hurt, and doing that actually paid quite a bit, I mean even though it's not really pay it's just getting money because I won which I did a lot wait no I didn't mean it like that, not to brag or anything but I meant-"

"Oh my god, Ko-nee, calm down. I'm not mad at you, and honestly, I can totally imagine you street fighting. Ok, maybe I can't, but most people probably could. You're just so strong looking, Nee-chan. Plus, nothing has changed about you. You're just as kind as you use to be." He smiled and relaxed completely in her grip, closing his eyes as if to sleep. Kosuke stayed quite for a few seconds, before saying,

"Thank you for understanding, Mako-nii.(why so many nicknames… I just can't decide on one lol) Anyways, after a couple years of that, I was able to finally get in contact with somebody to send that letter to you, and then I was able to afford a ship here and these clothes. I should probably get a job, hehe, because I could only afford these clothes." She smiled a little embarrassedly.

"It's fine, I'll let you borrow some money. We have enough to get you some stuff."

"A-ah! What? No, I couldn't do that to my step-parents! Speaking of stepfamily, how are the siblings? And what're their names?" She looked at Makoto, excitement dancing in her eyes.

"Ok, Ko-ko(did I just make that freaking nickname? Somebody needs to cut off my fingers… but leave my middle one and my thumb, please. ;3), first of all: if you don't borrow money from us, where will you get it? You couldn't get many jobs with those clothes. Err, no offence, but they're kind of dirty. And worn-out looking. So you can stay with us until then, and we can get you the things you need. And second of all; our stepfamily is doing awesome! They're names are Ren and Ran, and they're the most amazing step-siblings ever." He beamed at the last part, a truly happy smile that many people don't see.

"Ren and Ran, huh?" she thought for a moment, before turning a little red and saying, "Which ones the girl and which is the boy?" Makoto laughed, before saying,

"Ren is the boy, and Ran is the girl." He chuckled again as Kosuke's face got even redder, and he said,

"Believe me, the first few months, I got them mixed up too. I felt really bad. Wait, that last part probably didn't help. Forget I said that. Heh, sorry." He said, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. Kosuke laughed, and then ruffled his hair.

"So, do any of your friends know I'm back? Maybe Haru, or Rin?"

"About Rin…" Makoto winced.

"Hmm? What is it?"

"You've kinda missed a lot."

"Can you fill me in?"

"Sure… you see, Rin left for Australia to go to a swimming school. When he got back, he was really different… A lot meaner. Now he's at Samezuka academy. He moved back. And… well, yeah, that's the story with Rin. But it's fine; he's a lot nicer now. He's friends with us, too. We started a Swim Club, and it's the old group minus Rin, and instead Rei Ryugazaki. The old one was shut down. Hey, Nee-chan, while you're here, where will you be going?"

"Some place called Iwatobi High School. Also, I'm sorry about Rin, but at least it turned out all right in the end."

"You're going to Iwatobi?!" Makoto yelled as he shot up.

"Uh, yeah, why?" she asked, as he calmed back down and lays next to her again.

"I'm going to Iwatobi. Maybe you can join our swim team? I know you're good at backstroke and butterfly."

"You're going to the same school as me? That's awesome!"

"You shouldn't be that surprised, you know. The only other one you could've gone to was Samezuka, and I can't imagine you there. After all... it is a boys only school." He chuckled under his breath.

"Haha, you're right. Sorry." Kosuke said, smiling.

"Ah, don't apologize! Now you're making me feel bad!" Makoto laughed, and then they both burst out laughing.

"So, when are you gonna tell your friends about me?" Kosuke asked, after they had both calmed down.

"Well… I think I'll tell Haru first, then the others will find out when you transfer. I know, actually, how about I tell them about you during swim meet, and then you guys can meet when you get to the school?"

"That sounds awesome! Do you think we'll be in the same class?"

"Probably, we had a kid that recently transferred out."

"Wow, good timing much?" They both laughed a little at that. "Uh… do you mind if I stay here for the night?"

"Sure, I don't mind."

They both sat there for a few minutes, until Makoto fell asleep on her. She had smiled when he did, but a few minutes later, she fell asleep, too.

**A/N: All credit for the cover picture goes to DestatiDreamXIII on deviantArt! Check out her account if you have time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hehehe, so this one is pretty long too. I feel great; I got a review and I replied to them like 3 times because I'm an idiot xD. Anyways, with my extra sets of fingers, I shall type this chapter! Even though I already typed it... shhh. I'm typing this in google docs, so I'm pretty far ahead, I'm just too lazy to post the chapters. That's why I forget half the things I type. Forgive me. XD Ok, on with the story! Also, favs/follows/reviews are appreciated! And this chapter should be pretty long. Soon enough, after i finish with this story, there might be a second one about her job, and little drabbles about their everyday life, or if their meeting had been different. Suggestions for that would be appreciated :3 hehehe read on my children!**

**Yay, longest chapter yet- Again! Hehehehe.**

The next day at swimming practice…

"...Is everything ok, Makoto?" Haru asked, staring at him. So far, it was only him and Makoto there at swim practice. They had arrived earlier than everybody else, and the only thing Haru had done for the past 10 minutes was stare at Makoto.

"Uh, what do you mean? Of course!" Makoto said, smiling widely.

"I mean, you look really, really happy. You always look happy, but right now you just look really happy. Like, insanely happy."

"...huh." Makoto said, smiling and looking up a little. After a moment of silence, he said, "She's back."

"What? Already?" Haru asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah! She got back the day after we left, I think, or something like that. She stayed with me yesterday. I plan to tell everybody about her today." He smiled and looked in the direction Nagisa, Rei, and Gou would be coming from. Haru stayed silent for a minute.

"Was she the same?" Haru asked, looking into Makoto's eyes. Makoto seemed taken aback by that question, but then he smiled again.

"Exactly. If anything, she was more considerate. She sounded like she had missed me just as much as I had missed her. It was hard parting ways today, but she had to buy new clothes. She only had one pair; she hadn't been doing well on money recently." He chuckled a little then smiled at Haru. Haru only looked away, as usual, so he continued,

"Also, she's going to the same school as us, and she might be in our class." Now that took Haru by surprise. He looked up at Makoto, and said,

"Really? That's great, Makoto. Now you two can be even closer to each other. You'll be able to see her more."

"Yeah." He chuckles, the says, "Plus, it'll give you a chance to meet her earlier. I'm worried it'll be hard on her though, transferring near the end of the year. But still, I'm sure she'll be fine." Again, Haru stayed quiet for a minute after Makoto finished, before saying,

"Will she join the swim club?"

"Hmm? Yeah. She can swim backstroke and butterfly, but her backstroke is better. You should see her front crawl, too. It's really good."

"Hmm. Can she swim butterfly better than Rei?"

"Haru!"

"What? She could swim instead of him in the relays-"

"Haru, you don't just replace people like that! How would Rei feel?"

"We replaced him with Rin once. He didn't care."

"That was a one-time thing! And we didn't replace him. We just let… ok, maybe we replaced him, but not because we didn't want him!"

"Sort of. It was because we wanted Rin m-"

"No Haru, she's not going to replace Rei. But it would be nice to swim a relay with her once… or a few times. Eh, I just contradicted myself." He laughed then noticed Gou and the others coming over to where they were.

"Good morning Haru-senpai! Makoto-senpai!" She called out to them. Nagisa ran and gave Makoto a tackle-hug. Once Makoto was able to breathe again, he said,

"Good morning Kou-chan! Hey, I have something to tell you guys, so would you listen? It's pretty big." Makoto replied. Haru nodded his agreement at the end part.

"What is it, Makoto-senpai?" Rei asked.

"Well, the thing is… remember how I was afraid of the ocean, since I lost someone important to me to it?"

"Yes, why would you bring that up, Mako-chan?" Nagisa asked a little sadly, flopping down. Everybody else sat down too, following his example.

"Well… I didn't only lose one person on that ship, at the time."

"What do you mean, Makoto-senpai?" Gou questioned, raising her eyebrows. Makoto took a deep breath, then said,

"My sister was also on that ship."

"YOU HAD A SISTER?!" Gou, Nagisa, and Rei all yelled in unison. Haru and Makoto covered their ears.

"Not had, have." Haru spoke up.

"Huh? Wait, then-" Rei started.

"BUT HOW IS IT HAVE IF HIS SISTER DIED ON THE SHIP? OR ARE YOU SPEAKING SPIRITUALLY LIKE SHE'S STILL WITH HIM IN HIS HEART OR SOMETHING? I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD BE THAT DEEP, HARU-CHAN!" Nagisa interrupted him. Haru facepalmed and Makoto chuckled.

"You see, she's not dead." Makoto said, attempting to calm him down.

"How is that possible, Makoto-senpai?" Gou questioned, before Nagisa could freak out again.

"Do you mind if I can explain the whole story? It might take a couple minutes." He said, gathering how he was going to say it in his thoughts.

"Of course, Makoto-senpai." Rei said, focusing on Makoto intensely. Nagisa and Gou did the same. Makoto was feeling a little creeped out when he started explaining.

"You see, they never found my sister's body, so she wasn't confirmed dead. There was possibility that she had somehow survived, and her funeral was going to be scheduled about 3 years from now. That was, until the Japanese government found out she was alive. It was canceled, and they sent a letter to me. A few days later, she arrived here. I only saw her again yesterday She stayed with me, and right now she's out to get more clothes for herself. She doesn't have quite enough outfits as of now. She's going to be transferring to our school on Monday, so you guys will be able to meet her." Makoto finished his explanation, smiling a kind smile at the end. Everybody stayed silent, until Nagisa said,

"Is that a joke, Mako-chan? Or have you really kept it a secret from us for so long?"

"It's not a joke. You guys weren't the only ones who didn't know; he didn't tell me either. Can you blame him? If you had past family that wasn't around any more, would you really want to remind yourself of that?" Haru said, before Makoto could say anything.

"That makes since. We're sorry, Makoto-senpai. Bu-" Rei said, only to get cut off.

"OHMYGOSH YOU HAVE A SISTER THAT IS AWESOME LIKE REALLY REALLY AWESOME IS SHE PRETTY HOW DOES SHE LOOK AND SHE'S GOING TO OUR SCHOOL I CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HER IS SHE JOINING THE SWIM CLUB HOW OLD IS SHE OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" Gou interrupted Rei, not taking a breath once. She was obviously really, really excited.

"U-uh…" Makoto stammered.

"Yes, she's going to the swim club. She swims backstroke and butterfly. She's the same age as Makoto, and she'll probably be in our class." Haru answered in place of Makoto. Makoto shot him a thank-you-so-much-she-was-scaring-me-a-little-look.

"That's so awesome, Mako-chan!" Nagisa cheered, happily. "I can't wait to meet her! How tall is she? What color is her hair? Ooh! How big are her boobs?!"

"NAGISA!" Rei and Gou yelled.

"What? I wanna know!" Nagisa whined.

"Don't be inappropriate about it!" Rei yelled, while Gou looked at him sternly.

"You can wait until tomorrow." Haru said, simply.

"It's fine, Haru, I can tell th-" Makoto started.

"They can wait until tomorrow." Haru repeated.

"... Ok then." Makoto said, a little surprised at his friends stubbornness. Or at least what he considered stubbornness, since he hadn't really pushed it.

"Awww!" Nagisa whined. Rei and Gou shot him stern looks, even though they both secretly wanted to know, too.

"Come on. Let's start practice, guys." Rei said, standing up. Everybody else followed him, and they continued on with the day normally. Gou was also very happy with having another girl on the swim team, since there weren't very many girls that she saw swimming on teams and in competitions. It was a little saddening. But now, they had a girl on their team! It made her a bit more happy than expected, actually.

-Timeskip, again-

"I'm back!" Makoto called to an empty house. _Looks like she isn't. I hope she's not having any troubles… _The second he thought that, somebody knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Makoto called.

"It's me, Kosuke! I'm back, Mako-chan!" Kosuke yelled back from the door.

"Good! I'm coming!" Makoto yelled as he unlocked the door. Kosuke walked in with about two bags worth of clothes.

"How many outfits is that?" Makoto questioned.

"Six outfits, two jackets. That's all. Do you think it's enough?" Kosuke said.

"Yeah, it should be fine, for a while, at least." Makoto answered.

"Good. Uh, are there any extra rooms…?" Kosuke asked, looking at Makoto. Makoto nodded.

"Here, follow me. You should stay in the guest room. All the others are taken." Makoto said, smiling. He took her hand and led her to a normal-sized bedroom, with a bed, a dresser, a door to most likely a closet, a T.V., a game console, and a couch to the side.

"Woah, this is awesome!" Kosuke said, looking around. She still hadn't explored the house much.

"Yeah, I guess. It is pretty nice, isn't it? Anyways, want me to help you unpack your clothes?" Makoto asked, smiling. He looked at what she had: They all looked pretty comfortable. A lot of them were plaid shirts, baggy jeans or cargo pants/shorts, loose t-shirts, jackets.

"Huh. Where're the school uniforms? Didn't you have the location to buy them from?" Makoto asked, eyeing the pile of clothes.

"Err… they had some custom made for me. I don't fit the usual standard. Hehe." Kosuke said. Makoto laughed, then realized something not-quite-laughable.

"Uh, Kosuke-nee?"

"Yeah, Mako-chan?"

"I know you've always been against wearing skirts and dresses… like, really against it. For yourself, at least. What're you going to do about the school uniform?" Makoto asked, worried about the answer. To his surprise, Kosuke just smiled and said,

"That's what I mean by custom. They're not making me wear a skirt; I gave them reasons enough not to make me. It's still going to be different from your pants, instead, it's going to go directly below my knee instead of all the way to my ankle. There are a few other girls like that there, too." Kosuke grinned widely at Makoto's surprised expression, and laughed a little. She hugged him as a sort of apology. Makoto thought for a minute, then remembered a girl named Yasu who had worn pants instead of a skirt. She had told him (as a secret) that it was because she had a fake leg, but she didn't want anyone to know. At the top, it was metal, but below the top of the knee, it looked real. This made him wonder what her reason was.

"Let me guess; You want to know my reason?" Kosuke said, guessing what he was thinking, a lot like what he does to Haru.

"Huh? Yeah." Makoto confirmed. Kosuke grimaced, which made Makoto a little nervous.

"Back when I worked construction, there was an… incident. I have a scar, now, On the side of my thigh, that goes from the bottom of my hips to the top of my knees. It's really, really swollen and really, really ugly. That was reason enough for them. Plus, the second they saw me, they decided I was definitely not a skirt person. One kid literally said, 'you're way to boyish to wear skirts'." Kosuke laughed, hoping that Makoto would laugh too instead of linger on the first part. He did laugh, and after he calmed down, he said,

"I'm really sorry about your leg. Anyways, since I have a feeling you don't want to elaborate on that, where are your school uniforms?"

"Actually, they should've been mailed here by now. Come on, let's go check outside." Kosuke said, getting up and opening the front door. Sure enough, there was a package there, that said 'Iwatobi High School'. When she opened it, it was her uniform. It fit her perfectly, and it was just like she said: It was gray, closer to the color of the skirts, and it went just below her knees. He had seen that type on several girls before; he had just never really stopped to think about it.

**A/N: All credit for the cover picture goes to DestatiDreamXIII on deviantArt! Check out her account if you have time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Yay, this one is really long too! I'm catching up to where I am on Google Docs. All the procrastination, though. If you watch the video 'How To Procrastinate Like A Pro' or something on youtube, you'll understand what my day is like. It's by danisnotonfire hehehe. Anyways, favs/follows/reviews are super ultra amazingly appreciated, and read on, my children! :D (I need to stop calling you guys my kids it's really creepy even to me seriously why am I even doing that what's wrong with me somebody help)**

**Longest chapter, AGAIN. Hehe, I just keep making the chapters longer and longer XD I'm thinking of combining chapters 1 and 2, but I'm not sure if I should XD if I do that, then I'll also combine 3 and 4. I know I'm going to combine 3 and 4, I'm just not sure about 1 and 2. Hehehehe.**

-The Next Day-

"Good morning! Today, we will be having a new transfer student join us. Please welcome her." Ms. Ama said, motioning to where Kosuke was standing by the board with her name written.

"I'm Kosuke Tachibana. I transferred here from Alaska. Nice to meet you all." She said, fidgeting a little. The only one who knew she had Social Anxiety was Makoto, but no one else. After she finished saying her name, a few gasps went around the room, and all eyes went to Makoto. Everybody seemed to be thinking the same thing:

_This tall girl is your sister?_

He scratched the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly.

_Yeah._

"Nice to meet you, Kosuke. Your seat for the rest of the school-year will be behind Mr. Nanase over there." Ms. Ama said, pointing to the seat behind Haruka. She nodded and made her way to the back to sit behind him. As she did, people started looking between her and Makoto, which made Makoto try to disappear into thin air, and her to stiffen her back and try to ignore them. While also trying to disappear into thin air. Several of the students looking back and forth between them nodded their head and turned away, while several others kept on trying to mouth questions. Kosuke shifted uncomfortably in her chair, while Makoto put his head down on the desk and groaned. After the bell rang, she followed Makoto and Haru to the rooftop with the lunch Makoto had made for her. She saw a blonde boy and a blue-haired guy with glasses waiting by a fence, who she assumed were Nagisa and Rei.

"Hello guys!" Makoto called out to the two.

"Mako-chan!" Nagisa yelled, then his eyes widened. "No way, is that-"

"Is that your sister, Makoto-senpai?" Rei asked, looking at Kosuke who stood behind Makoto and Haru.

"Yeah! Kosuke, this is Rei and Nagisa, my friends and the other two people on the swim team." Makoto said, pulling Kosuke forward to them. Rei's eyes widened when he saw her whole body, and before she could say anything, Nagisa yelled,

"Are you SURE you're a girl? Like, SUPER DUPER UBER SURE? Because, you don't look like a girl at all to me!"

"NAGISA-KUN!" Rei yelled, incredulously. "Don't say things like that! It's rude!" He looked at Makoto and Kosuke nervously, looking for reactions. On the other hand, they just both stood there, one eyebrow raised each. They looked like they were processing what had just happened. Rei couldn't blame them, if it were him, he'd be fuming.

"Why?!" Nagisa exclaimed. "It's true! Makoto's so tall, but she's like 2 inches taller than him, and she's so buff! She has a lot of muscles! Plus, she-if that's what _she_ is- isn't wearing a skirt! Like, all the girls at this school wear skirts! And- oh, wait, she has boobs. She's a she." Nagisa finished, staring intently at Kosuke's chest.

"NAGISA! BE QUIET!" Rei practically screamed, dropping the -kun, and slapping his hand over Nagisa's mouth. "I'm so sorry about my friends irresponsible behavior. Please don't mind him. He's just an idiot." He waited nervously for either Makoto's or Kosuke's reaction, and he noticed Haru watching them a bit nervously, too. He was half expecting them both to get really mad, but instead…

They both started laughing.

Kosuke and Makoto were both laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. Kosuke had her hands on her knees, and Makoto knees were on the ground, as he tried to support himself. Haru and Rei both stared at them in surprise, but Rei felt Nagisa smile under his hand. After a minute more of laughing, they calmed down, enough for Kosuke to say,

"Don't worry, it's fine, really. My gender is questioned quite a lot, besides, Nagisa-kun- if it's ok for me to call you that- does make some good points. I am a lot taller than most girls, and buffer than most people. And, I'm also wearing pants instead of a skirt. Hehe." She said, scratching the back of her neck nervously, trying to calm Rei down. The fact was, she really didn't mind. To her, it was more of a compliment when people called her tall or buff. Everybody stayed quiet for a second, not really sure what to say, until Nagisa broke the silence.

"Of course you can call me -kun, Kos-kun!" He beamed.

"Why do you call all the boys -chan, and all the girls -kun? I mean, you even call Kou-chan Gou-kun, instead of Gou-chan, or more politely, Kou-chan!" Rei ranted, giving Nagisa the stink-eye.

"Well, duh! They both have manlier names then us! We all have girly names, so we're -chan, but Gou and Kosuke have boy names, so they're -kun!" he explained, as Rei started freaking out again.

"Nagisa-kun, consider other people's feelings before y-" He started, only to be cut off by a certain red-headed girl.

"Ohmygosh, Makoto, is that your sister?! Is that Kosuke?!" Gou yelled, stopping five feet away from the others to stare at her with sparkling eyes.

"Uh… yeah? This is Kosuke…" Makoto said, awkwardly. He was wondering if she was going to start screaming, 'TRI-CEPS!' or something like that.

"Hello." Kosuke said, smiling. She was really awkward in social situations.

"OHMYGOD YOU HAVE SUPER MUSCLES EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE A GIRL THAT'S AWESOME!" She screamed again, staring at her muscles.

"Calm down, Gou." Haru said. Since he rarely got involved in what any of them do, Gou listened.

"A-ah! Sorry, Kosuke-senpai!" She said, bowing. "My name's Kou-"

"No, you're names Gou! You just want people to call you Kou! Jeeze, Gou-kun, don't be so insecure!" He interrupted, sticking his tongue out.

"Shut up Nagisa! It's Kou! I don't like it when people call me Gou!" She countered, sticking her tongue out back.

"Uh, ok, then I'll call you Kou, if that's what you want." Kosuke said, chuckling nervously. She honestly like Gou a lot more than Kou, but it wasn't her name, it was Gou- er, Kou's.

"Oh! Thank you, Kosuke-senpai!" Gou beamed, as Nagisa stuck his tongue out again. Makoto and Haru both rolled their eyes. Kosuke wanted to as well, but she didn't want to make a bad impression. After all, first impressions were everything. After meeting everybody, they sat down to chat, though most of the topics were Kosuke. She explained a lot during that time. She didn't go into full detail about where she's been in the past 7 years, like she did for Makoto, but she did explain quite a bit. Makoto also learned that her best stroke was Butterfly now, not Backstroke. When she informed Gou that she would be joining the Swim Club, Gou had a miniature seizure of happiness. The whole time, Kosuke was feeling pretty awkward- she always had been in social situations. On the other hand, her brother kept on chatting about things she didn't understand- she had a feeling a lot of it had to do with the Swim Club. Well, she could tell that they were talking about it because they kept on saying things like 'fundraisers', 'events', and 'advertisements' to attract new members. Makoto, of course, had to add in that she was good at drawing, to which Kosuke corrected that she was only good at drawing dragons. After the bell was over, she went to her next few classes, most of which Makoto were also in. While leaving, Makoto was bombarded by a bunch of students wondering who Kosuke was.

"Hey, Makoto-senpai!" A random student called out.

"Makoto-san!"

"Tachibana!"

"Mako-san- I mean, Tachibana-senpai!"

Makoto turned in surprise after hearing all the people yelling his name. Kosuke was pretty surprised too; she hadn't expected something like this to happen. When she thought back on it, she felt stupid for not anticipating all of these students coming to ask him questions about her.

"U-uh, yes?" Makoto asked, dumbfounded at the mob of people standing before him. There was one boy in the front, who apparently was the one who asked all the questions.

"Who's that?" He asked, pointing to Kosuke. "Why does she have the same last name as you?! Is she your cousin or something?! Why'd she transfer so late?!" When Makoto remained silent, processing what had just happened, he yelled, "Answer me, Tachibana-san!" Makoto snapped out of his processing phase, and said,

"U-uh? O-oh, this is Kosuke. She's my sister-" He was going to say more, but he was cut off by the same kid.

"WHAT?! YOU HAVE A SISTER?!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, drawing everybody within hearing range to their attention.

"Uh, yah…?" Makoto said, looking around nervously. Kosuke did the same; it was obvious they both did not like being the center of attention. Kosuke saw Rei and Gou chatting, and they both shot her and Makoto pitying looks. She nodded a little sadly then turned her attention back to the second year in front of her.

"Why was she so late?! I mean, why wasn't she here at the beginning of the year?!" He yelled, again, as Makoto flinched.

"That's because she was in Alaska." Makoto explained, giving Kosuke an 'I am so sorry please don't hate me' look as everyone turned their heads to Kosuke. She just smiled an 'it's fine it was going to happen eventually anyways' smile.

"You were in Alaska?! Does that mean you can speak English?!" The boy asked again.

"Uh… yeah?" She replied nervously.

"Prove it! Satoshi can speak English too!" He said, pushing and awkward looking boy in front of him.

"U-u-uh, I'm s-s-s-sorry about this…" He stuttered, looking downwards.

"Don't be sorry! Just test her! I wanna know the truth behind this whole thing!" He shouted, hitting the back of the boys head.

"U-uh, ok… _so, you do know this means?_" He said, rubbing his wrist anxiously.

"_Actually, you would say 'so, do you know what this means?' not, "so, you do know this means?'. The what is pretty much the whole basis of the sentence. And the answer to your question is yes, yes I do know what that means. I've been speaking English fluently for 5 years now. It'd be very hard to not understand that. Also, you have a very strong Japanese accent, which is to be expected, so if you're actually going to use English if you, for instance, go to America, then you probably need to work on it quite a bit. Was this enough?_" She finished, as he stared up at her in astonishment. She laughed embarrassedly. Makoto also looked a little surprised, before laughing and turning back to the boy, apparently named 'Satoshi'.

"So, Satoshi? Can she speak it, or is she just making stuff up?" His friend pressed.

'U-uh, no! I mean, yes! I-I mean, no, she's not m-making it up, and y-yes, she can speak it. V-Very fluently, t-too, Masaki." He answered, uneasily. He obviously also did not like being the center of attention, which he was now.

"Really? That's awesome! Wait, but why transfer now?" The student, apparently named Masaki, urged.

"U-uh, I just now got back to Japan."

"Why?"

"... because I wanted to go back home?"

"Why'd you leave in the first place?"

Makoto and Kosuke both looked at each other with a raised eyebrow, then Makoto said,

"Hey! Look at the time! We have to get home now! Bye!" and with that, they both sprinted the opposite direction, as fast as they could, until they got out of sight from the mob of students, where they started walking.

"That was really, really awkward." Kosuke said, looking up at the sky. "Hmm, it looks like it's about to rain…" Makoto laughed, then said,

"Yeah. I didn't know you could speak English so well, Ko-nee. You know, Rin can, too. You guys could pick on us and have conversations in English about whatever." Makoto said, smiling and laughing again. Kosuke chuckled.

"Aww, I don't wanna pick on you, Nii-chan... but I just might." she said, winking. "It's kind of sad, but since I went so long without speaking Japanese, even though all of my thoughts were in Japanese for most of the time, it's still more natural for me to speak English. If I slip up sometime and say something in English, will you tell me?" She asked, looking at Makoto.

"Hmm? Of course, Nee-chan! I'll help you with anything." He replied, smiling.

"Thanks!" She beamed at him.

"Hmm, that reminds me…" Makoto said, trailing off.

"What is it?" Kosuke questioned.

"Our step parents will be back in a couple of weeks. Uh… I call them Mom and Dad now, and Ren and Ran don't know that I'm not actually related to them." He said, looking down as if afraid Kosuke would be mad at him for some reason. To his slight surprise, she just slung her arm over his shoulder, and said,

"Alright, I'll do the same then! We'll just tell 'em I went missing before they were born, which is true. Do they even know that I ever existed?" Kosuke said, chuckling.

"Yeah, they do. They know that I got a letter about you coming home. A-ah! I can't believe I haven't called them to tell them you're home! I need to do that!" Makoto said in alarm.

"Mako-nii, calm down. Don't worry, we're only a few minutes away from home. Besides, we've always called them our 'step parents', even though they're not quite that. A lot of people call their foster parents by their first names, and we never did that. So I'll call them Mom and Dad so that our st- er, brother and sister won't find out. How's that?" Kosuke inquired, ruffling Makoto's hair. It was an old habit of hers, one that she's had ever since she was a kid. Well, really, ever since they were both kids, when they were still together. She didn't really ruffle people's hair in Alaska. That would've been… awkward.

"Hah, you're right. Sorry, Nee-chan. I'm just a little concerned with how Ren and Ran will react. That's all." He said, concernedly.

"Well, that makes sense. They'll have an extra mouth to feed. I think I'm going to take a part-time job to help with that." She said, looking up at the sky as it started to rain.

"Oh! Great, it's starting to rain… Cloud isn't going to be happy." He muttered, nervously, before taking in what she said completely. "W-Wait! Hold it! You don't have to get a part time job! Don't worry, really, our parents are doing fine on money."

"Wait, who's Cloud? And I'll ask for their opinion, if that's what you believe." His sister said, noticing a shivering white puffball in front of the door. "Uh…"

"That's Cloud." Makoto answered, pointing to the puffball in the driveway. "He's a kitten; I think I'll take him in the house. He's a stray, but we feed him." He replied, walking towards him. Kosuke watched as he picked him up gently, cradling him. The kitten meowed a weak 'mew', then nuzzled his face into Makoto's arms, resulting in Makoto smiling and chuckling softly.

"Ok, I'm just gonna say this; That kitten is ADORABLE. So. Adorable." Kosuke spoke, walking over to Makoto and stroking the cats fur softly.

"I know, right? He really is just a tiny puffball of white." He agreed, scratching under the kittens chin.

"Yeah… come on, let's go in. Hah, I'm getting soaked! Race you to the door!" Kosuke half-shouted, running towards the door. It took Makoto a second to think about what she had said before he sprinted after her, yelling,

"Hey! So not fair! I have a cat in my arms!" They both burst out laughing and walked inside.

**A/N: All credit for the cover picture goes to DestatiDreamXIII on deviantArt! Check out her account if you have time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Yay! So many views! Hehehe. Anyways, this is a cut straight to the phone call with his parents. Sorry if the story is getting boring, but there will be more action in the next chapter, I promise! Also, I hope Destati doesn't mind, but I'm only going to put her name in the first 8 chapters, if that's fine with her. If you're reading this, Destati, tell me please! You can just tell me on DA hehehe. Anyways, favs/follows/reviews are intensely studied for 3 hours, so read on, and enjoy!**

"Uh, hey, Mom. I have some good news." Makoto said over the phone.

"Hmm? What is it, darling?" She answered.

"Kosuke is home." He said. His foster parent stayed quiet for a minute, before saying,

"That's amazing! Is she here now? Can I talk to her? Wait, no! I have to tell everybody first!"

"M-mom!" He said, exasperatedly. Kosuke chuckled, and Cloud started doing figure 8's between Makoto's legs.

"HEY, EVERYBODY! I HAVE GOOD NEWS!" She yelled, causing Makoto to facepalm and Kosuke to chuckle again.

"What is it, Mom?" Kosuke could hear Ran say from over the phone.

"You remember how I told you that your older sister was coming home?" His mom asked again.

"Yeah, why?" Ren answered this time.

"She's back! She's with Makoto right now! I think." She said, excitedly. The two siblings started squealing and doing what Kosuke could only presume was jumping up and down.

"That's great, honey. I can't wait to see her again. It's been so long since I last saw her." She could hear her step-father, whose voice had gotten deeper. Actually, she could almost swear that his voice sounded as if he was tearing up…

"Oh, honey, don't cry…" Her stepmother said, also sounding like she was fighting back tears. This time, it was her staring at the phone with a confused expression, and Makoto holding back a laugh. No, he wasn't laughing at the fact that they were, crying; he was laughing at Kosuke's expression.

"Mommy, Daddy, why are you crying?" Ran asked, as Ren screamed,

"Hey, don't do that!" Makoto guessed that they were fighting… again.

"We're just really happy, honey." Their mom answered.

"Would you cry for us?"

"Of course!" Both of the Tachibana parents said at once, causing them to laugh. After all of the Tachibana family on the other side of the phone had calmed down, her foster mother suggested that they put Kosuke on the speakers. Kosuke was starting to get really nervous; she had no idea what she was going to say. If this were for real, she could hug them or something, but right now… she noticed Makoto glance at her and raise his eyebrow. She nodded, and he said to their family,

"Don't you think it would be better to wait until you can see her in person? It would be a lot different, and probably more comfortable, if you did." His family was quiet for a moment, making Kosuke really nervous. She was afraid that they were going to think that this was because she didn't want to see them again, or that she didn't care. When she finally spoke up, Kosuke mentally choked on the amount of relief that she was feeling.

"Maybe you're right… yes, we can do that. That's a great idea. Can you at least tell us how she's doing?" Her mother inquired. To Makoto's surprise, Kosuke took the phone, and said,

"I'm doing great, Mom." She beamed at Makoto, who beamed back just as wide and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Ohmygosh is that you Kosuke?!" She yelled into the phone, making Kosuke and Makoto flinch back a little. Suddenly she regretted taking the phone. Her social awkwardness was now coming into play, but she'd try her hardest to not be horribly socially inept in front of her family.

"Yes, it's me. The real, actual, alive me. It's nice to- er, hear you again, mother." She said, and she heard Ren and Ran squealing in the background.

"Honey! It's been so long! We thought you were dead!" Mr. Tachibana voiced over the phone.

"Uh, nope, I'm alive. And I missed you a lot to, st- uh, Dad." She replied. She was a little anxious about the silence that followed until she realized that they were both crying.

_Great._

"Want me to take the phone?" Makoto asked, resulting in Kosuke nodding her head a bit too vigorously, causing Makoto to go into a laughing fit and Kosuke to turn red from embarrassment. After Makoto regained himself, he took the phone and said,

"Mom, Dad, should we go now? It's getting late, and we have homework to do." He said. It wasn't late at all where they were, but where the rest of the Tachibana's were, it was probably around 8:00.

"Y-yes." Either his father or mother, he couldn't tell through the sounds of sobs and squealing, managed to choke out. He hung up, and turned to Kosuke.

"Homework. Yay, huh?"

"Fantastic."

Fortunately, Kosuke had indeed gone to school in Alaska. Well, not really school, more like a class with 4 other students, learning the things you need to know to get through life. She still needed Makoto to help her a bit, though. She noticed he was wearing glasses.

"You need glasses?" She voiced her thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Our father did too, remember? Uh, our real one." He said. She was glad that he was able to talk about their real parents without getting really sad, like he use to. It use to be so bad, that when he even saw somebody walk around with their parents, he would start crying.

"I know. I've long since gotten over that." He said, knowing what she was thinking. "Hey, you remember what our original surname was, right?" He added, chuckling.

"Of course, Nii-chan. Hamasaki. Makoto Hamasaki, Kosuke Hamasaki. Has a ring to it, ne?" She answered, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah… it's actually kind of ironic, though."

"Agreed."

"I mean, come on… beach, seashore? We've both had our share of mishaps with the ocean. Though, one of us more than the other." He shot her a look with a raised eyebrow, as if saying, 'as in one of us wasn't stranded at sea. Guess who?'. She laughed, and then he joined in. After they finished up, he said,

"Oh, crap."

"Hmm? What is it, Mak-mak?" She questioned, concerned.

"Uhh… Ren's going to move into the guest room soon. They hate sharing a room. They were planning on moving him to it right after they got back." He replied.

"And my stuff is in the way." She finished.

"Yeah, pretty much." Makoto answered, looking down.

"No problem! I'll just move my stuff to your room, if you have enough space. And if that's fine with you." The second she finished saying that, Makoto's head shot up.

"R-really? You wouldn't mind sharing a room with me?"

"No, why would I?"

"Uhhh…" She facepalmed, and Makoto laughed.

"Ok, I'm sorry. You're right, Ko-nee, it's fine with me, too."

"Mako-nii, don't say sorry! It makes me feel bad! Besides, you say sorry a lot. Pretty soon, all of your dreams will consist of you saying sorry, over and over again." She joked, and Makoto doubled over from where he was sitting, laughing. It wouldn't normally be that funny of a joke coming from anybody else, but with Kosuke, it was just funnier, for reasons unknown. She chuckled too, then got up to go move her stuff. Makoto followed.

"You have a surprising amount of stuff considering you've only been here for a few days." Makoto said, raising his eyebrows at not only the clothes, but the crapton of books in the bookshelf that he was pretty sure hadn't been there before.

"Hehe, oh, yeah, sorry… I had extra money from what you gave me, so I bought some stuff to give me something to do other than sleep. I should've given it back to you, but I'm kind of a big reader… that's all I really could do in Alaska, anyways. I'm really sorry, Nii-chan." She said apologetically, looking downwards.

"Hmm?" Makoto asked, looking up at Kosuke. "Oh, no, that's why I gave you the money, silly!" He laughed, grabbing one end of the bookshelf. "Anyways, there's plenty of room in my room, heh, so let's move it there, all right?" He suggested, as Kosuke looked at him and smiled.

"Alright, I'm glad you aren't mad at me. I was afraid you might've been." She chuckled, grabbing the other end and hoisting it up. Makoto felt bad, for he could feel that he wasn't lifting half as much as she was. Part of that had to do with her height, the other part with her strength. Makoto knew that he was stronger than most people, but Kosuke was a_lot_stronger than most people. _A lot._He figure that it was mostly because of her hard work to stay in shape, or at least what she considers in shape. Her standards for herself are a lot higher than most peoples. Now, she wasn't impossibly buff- she was buff, but not like a body builder or anything odd like that. Her muscles weren't strained at all, she didn't have any veins popping out of her skin.(Anybody reading this watch Attack On Titan/Shingeki No Kyojin? She's like Reiner from that show. Just taller. She has Bertholdt's height and Reiner's physique hehehehe) She obviously worked for it, but he suspected that she had to stay strong to survive the situation she was in. It was definitely hard, with the low levels of civilization on Adak Island. Especially since she started off on Montague Island, which has practically no other human beings, other than people there looking for coal or something. He honestly would've just said that she'd swum to the other island, if the water hadn't been freezing and covered in ice. Wait a minute, swimming…


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Yay! 10th chapter! Not the longest one either, I'm actually kind of glad I could break that streak. Hehe. Thank you for all the views, I'm at over a thousand right now, which is great. Also, this is actually the second time I'm typing this, because I'm smart and the first time I typed it I forgot to save. YAY! Anyways, I hate to be that person, so I'll just say this. Reviews are like a writers life force. The more you get, the more motivation you have.**

**I'm running out of motivation here, guys. XD No but seriously, I'm not asking for a full-out critique, but if you could just take a minute to tell me whether or not you like the story, or if you have any suggestion, it would help me out a lot. Tankyou! (yes I discluded the 'h' on purpose.)**

"Agh! Dangit!" Makoto blurted out.

"Oh no, Makoto. Watch your mouth. Don't hit me with a string of 'gee gollys', and 'gosh darns'." she said bluntly, but also sarcastically. Makoto snickered and rolled his eyes. "Anyways, what is it?" She asked.

"We forgot to get you into the swim team. For that matter, I forgot practice." the green-eyed teen answered.

"Mako-nii, it's raining. Were you really going to practice swimming in this weather?" she raised her eyebrows.

"No, but we were going to have a team meet." he too raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, that makes sense…" she paused and pulled out the temporary phone Makoto had given her. "Ahah! It's only 3:40! I bet you they're still there!" She felt successful despite not doing anything at all. She watched in confusion as his expression darkened a little, only to pull out his phone and see that he had 40 new text messages. 30 of which were from Nagisa.

"Oh, crap." he mumbled. Kosuke leaned over to see what was going on, and couldn't stop herself from laughing when she saw it.

"Wow, that's a lot of text messages, Mak-mak!"

"Oh god, even Haru texted me! Haru never texts!" He distressedly starting typing his replies as fast as he could. They basically all said, 'Sorry! We're heading over right now!' She got up and walked upstairs, apparently shuffling through a few things, before calling,

"Do you have an umbrella, Nii-chan?" He pondered for a moment, before mentally cursing the lack of umbrellas in the house, and said,

"No, not right now! Ren and Ran took them to school with them!" Kosuke also paused for a minute.

"Good, I always like running through the rain!" She half-ran back down the stairs. "Come on, Mako-nii, it'll be fun!"

"Wh-what?! No! We'll get soaked!" he protested.

"Exactly!" she nudged his shoulder playfully. "C'mon, let's go! We don't wanna keep them waiting, do we?"

"Oh my god Ko-nee. Why. Alright, fine." He gave in, taking her hand and standing up. He mentally braced himself for running outside, when Kosuke opened the door. He didn't want the house to get wet, so he charged out, and Kosuke slammed the door behind him. They both sprinted until they got to a gas station that was in between their house and Iwatobi, when Makoto got a text. They were both out of breath, Makoto even more so than Kosuke.

"Hehe, I'm not gonna say I didn't do a lot of running in Alaska, but not that often in the rain like this. My clothes are weighing me down." She shot a look at Makoto. "Don't take that the wrong way." He laughed and read the text, which had been from Rei.

_Nice to know, Makoto-senpai! We were afraid something had happened. Is Kosuke-senpai coming? Also, please be careful. It's dangerous when the roads are this wet outside._

_-Rei Ryugazaki_

Kosuke read it over his shoulder, and laughed inwardly. It didn't stay on the inside, though, and she started chuckling.

"What is it?" Makoto questioned.

"Rei-kun does seem like the type of person to sign his name at the end of the text. It's kinda funny." she answered. Makoto let out a short laugh, then said,

"Yeah, that's true. Especially when I can see his name right here." he agreed, pointing to the top of his screen. Kosuke nodded, and they set out walking. She decided to start up a conversation.

"Remember our cousins, Fudo and Kyoko?" she questioned. Makoto hadn't seen them since their parents had died, so his memories were a little blurry, but he did know a few things.

"Yeah; they were twins, like us, but they looked totally different. Fudo had black hair and red eyes, and he was a pyromaniac. He also had next to no muscle, but he was really fast. He could probably beat Rei in a race, and that was back when he was 12. Kyoko, on the other hand, had blue hair and green eyes. She was also a pyromaniac, but instead of fire, she was obsessed with explosions. She was really strong, too, but also pretty slow. She wasn't buff like you, but she was really good at martial arts. I haven't heard from them since our parents death." he looked down as the rain poured down on his head. They were now jogging at a leisurely pace instead of running.

"Wait, isn't the term for that an atomosomaniac? Wait, no, that's atomic explosions. Oh well. And wow, you remembered them really well, Mako-chan. I'm impressed." she nodded, closing her eyes, then opened them and beamed. She slung an arm around Makoto's shoulders, causing him to look up at her. He smiled, then became confused as her expression turned horrified. There had been a lot of background noise, and he had only been focused on her voice, so he only half noticed the loud squealing and the yelling coming from his left. He looked in the direction of the noise, only to see bright headlight only a few meters away from them, and to be thrown to the side by who he presumed to be Kosuke. He hit the ground with a bang, though his fall wasn't as bad as it should have been, and he realized that she hadn't quite thrown him to the side. She had jumped to the side, propelled by the force of the car smashing into the tree they were just walking by, and she had held onto him. To be more specific, his back was facing the ground and he was under her, her stomach facing the ground, but she had broken his fall using her right elbow, which was now a bloody mess. The car had gone spinning out of control, and the back of it had hit the tree hard, sending pieces of shrapnel everywhere. With Kosuke covering him, he didn't get hit, but he felt her tremble and get pushed forward. After a second, the driver got out of the car, took one look at them, and sprinted towards the said two.

"Oh my god! I am so, so sorry!" the driver said, gasping and covering his mouth as Kosuke rolled off of Makoto, and he sat up, shaken pretty bad.

"What is it?" Makoto looked concernedly for the source of the gasp, when he spotted the blood dripping down her left arm, and he nearly screamed and passed out. Well, he didn't pass out, but he did scream.

"Eh?" Kosuke questioned, looking towards the driver, then towards the sick-looking Makoto, before shifting her arm slightly and grimacing, probably holding back a shout, and putting her good hand over it. She winced as she made to get up, before the driver lightly pushed her back down.

"I am so, so, so sorry, my car was out of control, I couldn't stop it-" he started.

"It's fine. It wasn't your fault." Kosuke said, receiving a surprised look out of the driver in turn. That look quickly turned to horror.

"B-but you need medical treatment! We need to call 911 or-" he was interrupted again, by Kosuke standing up, accidentally looking pretty intimidating by looming over him with a grimaced expression.

"No, I don't. I've had worse, we have something to go to." She tightened her grip on the 4-inch piece of metal debris sticking out of her shoulder, and despite the drivers protests, yanked it out and threw it on the ground, causing more blood to flow from the wound and farther ruin her new shirt. At least she hadn't been wearing a jacket this time. She refused to go to the hospital right now, even though Makoto and the driver had both practically begged her. In the end, she agreed to let the driver help stop the bleeding and hopefully prevent immediate infection by using the first-aid kit he had in the car. When question to why he had this, he said that his son had a really bad case of eczema, and often picked at it, then got dirty. He often had wrap gauze around it and disinfect it. They both understood, and he started by putting alcohol on it, which made Kosuke yelp in pain. Makoto stood next to her, holding her hand as he dabbed more into the wound, saying reassuring words that really did nothing for her. Realizing this, he stopped, and instead just stood there, his hand in hers. As soon as he wrapped the gauze around the middle of her left arm(from shoulder to elbow), she thanked him.

"You know, you're lucky that cut wasn't deeper, or else you'd have to get stitches. Actually, you probably still have to get stitches." He left after saying that, jogging down the street, leaving his now unusable car. Makoto and Kosuke both walked in silence, though Makoto never let go of her hand, which she found reassuring. Something not reassuring was that the gauze kept getting more and more red, until it finally came to a stop when it started dripping blood. Makoto thought back to what exactly had happened, and he realized the place where Kosuke had gotten hit with shrapnel was covering where his shoulder was. It probably would've hit his tendon, and if he was unfortunate enough, his swimming days would have been over.

"Thank you, Nee-chan." he blurted out of nowhere. "If it weren't for you, I would've gotten hurt badly." She looked at him in surprise for a moment, before beaming widely and saying,

"That's what I'm here for! I'm glad I could help you, Mako-chan!" She laughed and threw her good arm around her brother, not even caring that they were getting soaked anymore. The rain was actually starting to lighten up a bit, which was saying basically nothing, since the streets were flooded. Besides, the water helped her arm feel better. Makoto was surprised how little she had reacted to it. Sure, she had grimaced and let out a few sounds of pain, but that cut was deep, and having alcohol poured in it must have felt horrible. He jogged, lost in thought, before he felt his phone buzz with a text. They walked over to a dry spot under a bus stop, and Makoto pulled out his phone. It had been from Gou.

_Makoto-senpai! We're worried about you! Where are you, and why is it taking so long?_

Makoto paused, realizing that he hadn't replied to Rei, before texting back,

_Sorry, Kou-chan. We ran into a bit of trouble-_

He deleted the last sentence. In the end, the message said,

_Sorry, Kou-chan. We're all right, don't worry. I am bringing Kosuke with me. We're only about a minute away from Iwatobi High. We had to stop for a while. We'll explain when we get there. Please don't worry._

Kosuke nodded her head silently in approval of his reply, and he smiled kindly.

"Nice job, if you give to much detail they'll freak out. If you don't give enough, they'll freak out. I know I would, at least." She chuckled, and Makoto smiled again, even wider.

**A/N: Oh yeah, I think I already said this, but I'm thinking of doing drabbles about what else goes on in their life. This story will be continued for a while, but it might not all stay in one place. I'll probably make a continuation of it, after they get the whole thing sorted out, so, yeah. Look out for that. A lot of the shorts will probably be comedy, which is, in my opinion, what I'm best at writing. My weird, weird ADHD thought process helps a lot too.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Yayy! This was posted on my birthday~ Thanks for all the views, it's super mega awesome. I'm hoping to post a Bleach or Psycho-Pass fanfic next, the former of which will probably be about Gin. It's probably gonna be about little interactions and pranks he pulled, but it's definitely gonna be humor! Yay! Bye bye, and review please~!**

When they got to the entrance of Iwatobi High, they found the whole group waiting for them. As they got closer, Rei and Gou's expressions turned to that of horror.

"K-Kosuke-senpai! Are you ok?!" Rei started to panic, and Gou had to calm him down, as Haru just stared.

"Ko-kun! Your arm is covered in blood!" Nagisa said, pointing out the obvious. Kosuke smiled a kind smile, while Makoto smiled a nervous one.

"Don't worry, I'm fine! I'll tell you what happened once we get inside, okay?" The other people in the group nodded their consentment, not saying anything out of fear to what the answer would be. Makoto and Kosuke were both soaked to the core, so they had to sit on towels, to their slight embarrassment.

"Would you mind telling us what happened, Kosuke-senpai?" Gou questioned. Makoto was the one to explain.

"A car went spinning out of control. Kosuke threw me out of the way on time, and saved me from getting a bad injury on my shoulder by throwing herself in front of me. The man in the car disinfected the wound and put gauze around it." As he finished, everybody but Makoto turned to stare at Kosuke. She turned red from all the attention. They were all silent for what felt like eternity, probably even more so to Kosuke, before Rei finally spoke up.

"That's amazing, Kosuke-senpai. I didn't know you were so brave. Thank you for saving Makoto-senpai." He pushed his glasses up. Kosuke turned red again as everybody in the room nodded and mumbled thanks, or in the case of Nagisa, yelled it and tried to glomp her. It ended up with Haru having to pull Nagisa off of her.

"W-wait a minute!" she said, louder than she meant to be. "O-oh, sorry, but the thing is, you guys are acting like I saved his life. I didn't do that much. Besides, it was an immediate instinct. Makoto is the only one of my f- uh, sorry, I meant the only family I've seen in years. It's only natural, right?" She looked around as everybody else looked at eachother, then Gou excitedly turned back to her.

"Hey, Kosuke-senpai! Are you going to join the swimming club?" she asked excitedly. While Kosuke was in Alaska, she had picked up a heavy use of sarcasm which she had managed to restrain to far. But now, she couldn't.

"No, of course not. I came to get injured and stare at the walls." As everybody stared at her for a second, discluding Makoto who was trying very hard to hold back his laughing, as Rei finally got it and chuckled. "Oh my gosh, you guys! I was kidding! Of course I came to join the swim club! Why else would I have gone with Makoto?" She, Makoto, and Rei couldn't help themselves, so they burst out laughing at the extremely confused look of Nagisa, Gou, and even Haru. Then, as it finally clicked in Nagisa and Gou's mind that she was just tugging their legs, they burst out laughing to, and Haru only smiled. Suddenly, Makoto straightened up, and said,

"Alright, but you do have the papers, right, Gou?" He questioned.

"H-huh? Of course!" She turned and made a mad face. "I'm not stupid, Makoto-senpai!"

"I-I'm sorry! I was just making sure!" Makoto apologized, waving his arms frantically. Gou stuck her nose in the air and nodded smugly, before smiling politely at Kosuke, who had been trying desperately not to laugh this whole time. Fortunately, she succeeded, and kept a straight face when Gou handed her the papers. They were mostly just things like agreeing to conditions. Rei hadn't had to sign these, for he was one of the first 5 members.(Not including Ms. Ama) She skimmed through it quickly, had to sign her name in a few places, then boom, she was in.

"That reminds me, Ko-kun!" Nagisa blurted out of nowhere. "What strokes do you swim?" The rest of the group, including Makoto, immediately turned towards her.

"U-uh, I can swim all of them…" They continued to stare at her. "O-oh! I swim butterfly best, backstroke second best, then breaststroke. Freestyle is kind of, like, bleh, for me." They all nodded, and Haru looked down a little. He probably didn't like hearing somebody say stuff like that about freestyle, but he immediately snapped out of it and continued to act like he usually does.

"I thought you were better at backstroke, Nee-chan." Makoto said.

"I used to be. I'm just a tad bit better at butterfly. I'm not actually sure if I am anymore, you could tell me whenever I have the chance to swim." Suddenly, Gou perked up.

"What about us? Could we see your strokes?" she questioned.

"U-uh, sure, why not?" Kosuke replied, timidly. After that, they talked for a few minutes about plans, training routines, and other things, and before they knew it, it was 5:00.

"Oh, sorry, guys, we still have homework to do! We have to go!" Makoto said hurriedly, grabbing Kosuke accidentally by the bad arm, where she winced and grimaced a little. Makoto jumped back and a wave of guilt washed over him. The others could easily see it in his face.

"S-sorry, Nee-chan!" he said, bowing a little in apology.

"It's fine, Mako-nii. Don't sweat it." She smiled and stood up, then threw her good arm around Makoto's shoulders. "But he's got a point. We have to leave. Don't worry, this time we'll be more careful, all right, guys?"

"Ok. The storm has cleared up a lot, too." Haru put in.

"Alright, guys, see you later!" She called.

"Bye!" everybody, including Haru, even though he was a bit more quiet, called back. After Makoto and Kosuke left, everybody just looked at each other, a little awkwardly, before Rei said,

"You can almost literally feel the bond between them. Hearing the story of how she threw herself in front of Makoto-senpai, or something along those lines, made me realized just how close they are. I don't think the apocalypse could separate them." He pushed up his glasses.

"That's definitely true." Haru said, then he stood up and walked out the door.

"Yeah… it's nice to see Mako-chan so happy." Nagisa said, with a light smile on his face.

"Hmm? What do you mean? He's always happy around Haru-senpai, isn't he?" Gou questioned.

"Yes, but not this type of happy. This is his family, somebody he's missed for years, and somebody he can freely talk to and chat with." He smiled again and pulled an Iwatobi Penguin out of his pocket, then started playing with it.

"Wow, Nagisa-kun, I never knew you could be so deep." Rei joked.

"Shut up, Rei-chan!" he shot back.

"Guys, I'm gonna go to. You should head back home, too!" Gou told them, then got up and left. Soon after, Nagisa and Rei were leaving too.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Well... ahem... *cough cough*... I'm not dead. I just put the explanation of stuff on the bottom of the page... even though it's not really an explanation XD. Ok, let me explain myself. FALLOUT TALE. That's all I'm going to say...**

**OK WAIT THIS ONE IS A LOOOOT LONGER THAN THE OTHERS. LIKE, A LOT. AS IN, A THOUSAND MORE WORDS LONGER. YUHP. HAVE FUN READING IT!**

**I think this one might be longer that the others? I'm not sure.**

"AAAGGH." Kosuke suddenly blurted.

"Huh? What is it?" Makoto questioned. She didn't appear to be in pain.

"Are you sure we have to go to the hospital, Nii-chan?" She complained. Makoto laughed.

"Unless you want to faint of blood loss and then be ridden in an ambulance over there." He replied.

"Bleh." She stuck her tongue out and looked to the side, as Makoto chuckled again.

"Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask you something, Ko-nee." Makoto said.

"Hmm? What is it?" She looked to Makoto, whose hair was flat on his face from all the rain.

"Is that really the order of how well you can swim? What you told them?" He questioned. She looked down, then said,

"To be honest, I have no idea. I do know that I actually swim freestyle pretty well, and that my best is butterfly. I'm pretty sure I'm equal on freestyle and backstroke, but I'm not very good at breaststroke. I'm not too horrible, either." she explained.

"Then why'd you tell them something else?" He asked, as she turned red.

"Uhh… hehe… funny story, it's been so long since I swam anything other than butterfly, so long that I actually might've sort of mixed up freestyle and breaststroke." She laughed nervously, waiting for Makoto's response with unease. He stayed quiet for a minute, then burst out laughing. She chuckled sheepishly and scratched the back of her neck.

"Makes sense. By the way, Ko-chan, how did you swim?" It was a question that had been on his mind since he had learned that she swam while in Alaska.

"Well, there are certain parts near the middle of the island where thanks to natural heat coming from the ground, it's not so cold that it'll give you hypothermia. Okay, it might've given some people hypothermia, but I was lucky. It was kind of like swimming here during winter, but not quite that cold. Probably ¾ that temperature? Anyways, I got colds, but it was worth it." When she finished, Makoto was staring at her with slightly widened eyes. He had stopped walking. She was about to ask what was wrong, when he said,

"Ko-nee! You could have gotten really sick! Don't put yourself in danger like that!" His protective mode activated.

"Yes, Mom." She replied, trying her hardest not to chuckle. Actually, to not burst out laughing. He processed what she had said for a second, then said,

"H-hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" He'd been told he acted like a mom before, but he never actually believed it.

"You're acting like a protective mother hen, Mako-nii. You're my bro, not my mom." she responded. "You even did it when we were kids." Makoto just stared at her for a minute, before suddenly gasping and freaking out.

"M-Mako-nii? What is it? What's wrong?" She wasn't expecting such a sudden outburst.

"Your arm is bleeding! The rain is getting it all over your clothes- again! And you're leaving a trail of blood! Oh my god are you ok?!" He started freaking out again, before grabbing her good arm and practically pulling her the rest of the way while she told him that she was ok, and it didn't really feel that bad. That last part was a lie. It wasn't bad enough that she wanted to yell or cry, but it still hurt pretty bad. Ok, that was also a lie. She really wanted to curl up in a ball and rock back and forth while doing her best to shut out the pain, but she pushed that feeling to the back of her mind.

"Come on! The emergency room is right there!" he half-yelled.

"Uhh, the emergency room? Is it really that bad?" she protested. He turned to look at her with a very unamused expression.

"You're literally covered in blood. Wait too much longer, and you'll pass out from blood loss." he said, with a 'you're-not-going-to-fight-me-on-this-one' voice. She simply nodded as she was pulled into the doorway under the red, glowing sign that said, 'EMERGENCY'. (disclaimer: I have no idea how emergency rooms work. I know there's a triage or something where you get graded on the order of your treatment and the priority of it, depending on how bad your condition is. Then they treat you and then ask questions… or something… oh god don't hate me for getting all this wrong please.) When she walked in, the first thing she saw were chairs. Lots and lots of chairs. There were also a bunch of people sitting in them, quite a few crying, a lot clutching their stomach, head, or limbs, and a few just sitting there. She had been to an emergency room in Alaska several times, but it was very small, and didn't fit very many people. Though people were getting injured quite often, there was only about 320 or 330 people where she was, unlike the nearly 13,000 people in Iwatobi. She let the door shut behind her, and immediately, nearly half the room turned to look at her. A few people looked away, then did a double take when they realized how much of her was covered in blood. By now, she was starting to feel light-headed, and a bit of the room was spinning. It was becoming harder to resist the urge to yell out in pain, too. The person in the front desk turned to look at her, wrote something down on her board, then made a gesture with her hands to get closer. Makoto grabbed Kosuke, who had still been processing pretty much everything, and pulled her towards the front desk. He had realized that she was probably starting to feel nauseous, or however you feel when you lose too much blood. He didn't know. The nurse picked up a black walkie-talkie looking thing and spoke into it, followed by nurses rushing in from another doorway. They asked Makoto to stay behind, despite his protests.

"But she's my sister! I was there when it happened! At least let me make sure she's okay!" he objected, turning to look at Kosuke, who now had a dazed appearance.

"I'm sorry, sir. We need to make sure she's okay before we can allow any visitors." the nurse explained.

"But-" Makoto started, only to be cut off by a certain bleeding person.

"I'm fine, Nii-chan. Don't get into a fight with the people who're going to help me. That might end up bad." She was finally able to speak up. Before, it had been as if she wasn't able to register anything that was going on around her, but she had heard their argument. Per his instructions, she followed the man back to a curtained area where she had to lay down. They told her they were going to give her a shot to knock her out, and she nodded blankly. She couldn't remember what happened during that time. After all, she was asleep. Makoto, on the other hand, remembered what was happening on his side perfectly. They said that she'd be moved to a different hospital to treat any possible infections, and that he could stop by any time. It had turned out that she actually had gotten a pretty bad infection, and there was still a chunk of sharp metal in her arm. She was estimated to be in the hospital for about 3 more days, which means she'd be missing her first few days of school. Not a good start.

"Hey, Mako-chan! Where's Ko-kun?" Nagisa questioned, staring up at him with puppy eyes.

"Uhh…" he started, not wanting to get them worried.

"Yes, Makoto-senpai, where is she?" Rei pressed.

"She's in the hospital. Turns out the cut was infected." he finally answered. Everyone stared for a moment, before Gou looked down sadly.

"Is… is she going to make it?" Gou asked, nervously.

"Huh?" Makoto blurted, surprised. He suppressed a chuckle. "Of course, Kou-chan. She's going to be fine. She'll be back in a few days, but unfortunately, she won't be able to swim for another 2 weeks." he looked at everyone. "Sorry, guys." he added, due to their disappointed looks.

"No, it's fine. Not your fault." Haru said, looking away. Makoto smiled gratefully.

"Whew, that's good, I was concerned!" Gou said, wiping a drop of sweat of her forehead. "Wow, it's hot out here, we should go inside!" Everyone was thankful to her for breaking the slightly awkward silence. They followed her inside, where they sat down on a bench near the side of the hallways.

"Wait, that means Ko-kun won't be able to swim, right?" Nagisa spoke up.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I guess. Only for a couple weeks, though. She'll be able to swim after that." Makoto answered, unknowingly relieving the members of the swimming club. He looked down at a piece of crumpled up paper by his feet.

"That's good, I can't wait to see how fast her butterfly is. Do you think it'll be faster than Rei-kuns?" Gou asked, as Haru frowned.

"Don't be mean, Kou. He's right there." Haru disciplined, but Rei put his hands up and shook his head.

"No, it's fine, guys! I want to see, too. I also wonder about the rest of her strokes…" Rei reassured the group.

"To be honest, I do, too. I haven't even seen her swim yet, and she's been living in the same house as me since she's gotten back. And then again, that isn't very long." The green-eyed teen said, picking up the piece of paper that had drawn his attention. He unraveled it, revealing an unfinished drawing of a mountain landscape. He threw it into the trashcan, but it bounced off the rim and landed on the floor. They sat there, chatting for the rest of lunch, until it was finally time to go back and finish the rest of their classes. Makoto went through the remainder of the day in thought; he was yelled at more than once by the teachers to 'pull himself together'.

_Stupid teachers, you don't know what's going on. _He thought, and then his eyes widened just a bit.

_Oh my god did I just think that?! _His eyes widened more and his hand twitched. _I am so sorry teachers! I didn't mean it! It's only natural for you to want me to do my best! And of course you don't know what's going on it's not like y-_

"TACHIBANA MAKOTO!" The teacher yelled, slipping Makoto out of his conflicting thoughts.

"H-hai!" Makoto said back, straightening his position in the chair. "Sorry, sensei!"

"Get back to work, Tachibana!" he replied, as the whole class snickered. Makoto just sighed and looked crestfallenly at the sheet of paper in front of him, which he was already behind on.

-Later that day, at swim practice-

"Hey, Mako-chan, what's wrong?" Nagisa asked worriedly, looking at Makoto's unfocused green eyes.

"H-huh?" he asked, snapping back to reality. "Oh, sorry, Nagisa. I was just lost in thought." He smiled lightly and looked at the pool, and Haru swimming through it gracefully.

_He really is like a dolphin._ He thought, covering his mouth with his hand as he chuckled. Nagisa smiled, then it nearly immediately dropped. He stayed silent for a moment, making Makoto concerned, before he said,

"You're worried about Ko-kun, aren't you?" Makoto's eyes widened, then he laughed, all worries forgotten for the moment.

"Wow, I really am like an open book, aren't I?" he said, as Nagisa nodded with a finger held up. He then laughed and attempted to jump on Makoto, instead nearly knocking them both to the ground. Nagisa tried to regain his balance, but instead hopped a few feet on one foot, then feel flat on his face.

"A-ah! Nagisa! Are you alright?" Makoto panicked slightly, rushing over. Nagisa's nose was bleeding, not because he broke it, but because he scraped it on the ground when he fell.

"Ehhh?" he asked, getting up and rubbing the blood off of his nose. "Of course, Mako-chan! I'm fine!" He then wiped the remainder of the blood off and smiled goofily. Makoto smiled in a very relieved way, then watched as Rei walked into view, with Nagisa running off to pester him about who-knows-what. He walked as Gou walked up to him and looked down for a second.

"Hmm? What is it, Kou-chan?" he asked.

"Uh, are you going to visit Kosuke-senpai today?" she answered his question with a question. Makoto looked up at the sky thoughtfully, before looking back down to her and smiling warmly, but with a bit of a shadow over his eyes. It passed quickly, but his smile remained.

"Yes, I am! Why?" he replied.

"Do you mind if I come? I know I haven't known her for very long, but I'd still like to see her." Gou looked up at Makoto, her red eyes shining under the light of the sun. Makoto was taken aback for a second, his smile disappearing, before it reappeared again, even warmer this time.

"Of course! (while typing this I accidentally added not… I then imagined Gou looking incredibly sad and rejected. XD) I'm sure Ko-nee will be glad to see you there, too." He turned to where Haru was watching Rei and Nagisa play-fight in the water, probably disrupting him, and laughed. Gou followed his eyes, and lightly giggled as well.

"Anyways, thank you, Makoto-senpai! I'll wait for you at your house!" she called, waving back to him as she walked back to her position in the small building next to the pool. He looked back to where Haru was still gliding gracefully through the water, and smiled slightly sadly. He then asked Rei to time him, and got into the water, getting into his starting position, and pushing off with what seemed the appropriate force when Rei yelled 'GO!'. He was unfocused this time, though, so his time was under that of his Regionals time. After Rei chastised him to be more focused, he decided to leave early. It wouldn't be a problem, since Gou had already left a while

before.

"Ah! Makoto-senpai!" she called, waving her arms excitedly.

"Hello Kou-chan! Are you ready?" he kindly questioned.

"Yeah! I-I… uh… I don't exactly know the way to the hospital. How long of a walk is it?" Makoto raised one eyebrow, wondering why she didn't ask earlier.

"It's about a 30 minute walk. Is that too long?" He raised his other eyebrow.

"Oh, no! To be honest, I was expecting it to be longer than that." She smiled kindly, almost mirroring Makoto's smile. "It's fine, trust me! Do you need a minute to get ready?"

"Unless I want to walk to the hospital with my backpack, probably." he joked, chuckling light-heartedly, and walked inside as Gou turned a little red. _She probably feels embarrassed that she didn't think of that, now I feel bad… _he thought, laughing under his breath again as he walked up the stairs and into his room, and after he put his backpack down he decided to change clothes since his were a bit sweaty. He came back down in light brown pants, a blue and white striped shirt, and a blue jacket, which was kind of a regular for him. He didn't mind the school uniform, but clothes like these were more comfortable. He walked back out, where Gou was now texting on her phone, most likely to Chigusa that she couldn't hang out. He most certainly didn't know this because he read them from behind her. Nope. Not at all.

"A-ah! Makoto-senpai! Sorry, I didn't notice you!" she said, slipping her phone into her pocket.

"It's fine, don't worry. Come on, we don't want to get there too late." He smiled kindly again. He walked in front of her, and she followed behind him, then over a course of time went to stand next to him. They mainly kept up small conversation; him asking her about her classes, then absent-mindedly relating what she was doing in her 2nd year to what he did in his 2nd year.

"Makoto-senpai, do you have any idea what you're going to do after you graduate? College or High School." she asked out of the blue. He blinked a few second and stopped walking. She was about to ask what was wrong, but he smiled and tilted his head to the side a little, continuing to walk.

"Yeah… I'm going to go to college, though I'm not sure which one yet… either the local one or one in Tokyo. I've actually gotten scholarships for both." he was going to continue, but Gou cut him off.

"Really? Scholarships for both of them? That's amazing, Makoto-senpai!" she exclaimed. "What career are you going to pursue?" Makoto had been thinking about this for a while, and he had made up his mind just the other day.

"Probably a fireman." He looked up at the sky, and listened to Gou's footsteps abruptly stop, then pick up again, running to catch up to Makoto.

"R-really?"

"Yehp!" He chuckled. "Kou-chan, just because I'm afraid of the dark, doesn't necessarily mean I'm afraid of fire." She stared at him for a few seconds.

"I know, but it's such a dangerous job… you risk your life a lot…" she looked down.

"I'm aware of that, but if it means I can help other people, or even save their lives, it's definitely worth it. Oh, hey, look! There's the hospital!"

**A/N: HAHAHAHA HORRIBLE CHAPTER ENDSSSS. Ahem. Sorry about the SUPER LONG wait inbetween updates, so I'm gonna tell you now… this story is on hiatus. I'm currently writing other fics on deviantArt, and they're a lot more successful, so I'll be working on those for a while. That's all! Byebye~!**


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